Christmas Eve at The Din’s

My first memory of Christmas Eve was flying to my grandparent’s in Montreal, Canada when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember my grandfather helping me make my first snowman, I remember him hosing down the backyard so I could learn to ice skate, and I remember him dressing up and pretending to be Santa Claus. I also remember my older sister holding my brand new crayons and coloring book hostage and then my mom yelling at both of us and then her marching down to the store to buy me a new pack of Crayolas.  In the snow.  Barefoot.  Haha, just kidding Mom!

No holiday memory is complete with an argument of some sort so why would today be any different?

I wanted to make Christmas Eve special this year.  Since today was the first day of Maya’s vacation I envisioned us in cute holiday outfits, surrounded by lots of happy people, spending quality family time together.  A great notion but not quite the reality of today.

This morning Maya and I headed out to The Grove to buy a Christmas gift for an unexpected guest at our dinner tomorrow night. (I swear I didn’t procrastinate!)  The Grove is really one of our most favorite places in Los Angeles.  How can you not love a place that looks like Disneyland?

After buying the gift we needed, we headed to Anthropologie to try on a new look:

We stopped for a photo opp:

Tried not to fall in while we enjoyed the mini-Bellagio water show:

We made a new friend:

And stopped for a pizza break:

When we finally came home Maya proceeded to ask me, “What should I do now Mama?”

So our quality time continued.  We had a tea party on our finest Dora blanket:

And then watched a nice feel good holiday movie – Marley & Me. 

Things were going so well that I got overconfident.  I should have known better but stupid me, I suggested we eat dinner out.  Bad idea.

With our first choice closed for the evening we headed to PF Chang’s again.  A super traditional Christmas Eve choice, right?  Well the thing is that I was so excited by their gluten-free menu last week that I figured why not go again?  But is a restaurant ever as good as you remember it the first time?  Sorry PF Chang’s…you still get kudos for your gluten-free menu but your Cantonese Shrimp and Scallops?  Well they are pretty terrible. 

What was even more terrible?  An exhausted Maya being a complete and total brat.  She had a rare bad night that included the following statements from me:

“There will be no TV tonight!” 

And then a few seconds later:

“There will be no TV tomorrow night either!”

Merry Christmas Eve, right?  Hopefully tonight’s ending WON’T be a new tradition for the Din Family!